INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF BULBOUS BOW ON THE

HYDRODYNAMIC LOAD ON FLARE SECTION OF CONTAINER SHIP IN

REGULAR WAVES BY USING COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMIC
TECHNIQUE

Md. Mashiur Rahaman1, Akimoto Hiromichi2, Sharmin Shabnam1

ABSTRACT

Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes based computational fluid dynamics technique WISDAM

developed at The University of Tokyo is used to investigate and compare the hydrodynamic loads on
container ship models SR108 and KCS in 120 degree regular oblique wave conditions.
WISDAM has the capability of handling six degrees of freedom (6DOF) in ship motions.
Finite volume method with structured and overlapping grid system is employed. The flow
variables are described in staggered manner i.e. velocity components are defined at the face
center while pressure is at the cell center. Computational results agree favorably well with existing
towing tank results especially for ship motions. Computational results also show that ship with
bulbous bow experience higher hydrodynamic loads on bow section.

INTRODUCTION

The steady increase of demand in global container traffic leads to increase the size and
capacity of container carriers with large bow flare. Due to this large flare, container
carriers experience more nonlinear ship motions and wave induced loads in actual sea
operation. Therefore, advanced and accurate prediction method is required during the
preliminary design stage for these wave induced loads to understand structural strength,
integrity and safety.

Yamamoto et al. (1986) calculated the non-linear ship motions based on the equations given
by the liner theory but time varying coefficients dependent on the instantaneous sectional
draft. They also included the hydrodynamic impact component given by the rate of change of
the sectional added mass, assuming that this force only acts on the vessel when the section is
penetrating the water. They carried out experiments and calculations on a bulk carrier model
for head seas. They found that the accuracy of the calculation of the hydrodynamic
coefficients has a significant influence on the results of the slamming forces.
Ramos et al. (2000) conducted investigation of ship motions and wave loads of a container
ship in ballast condition theoretically and experimentally. They assumed that the total vertical
moment induced by waves can be divided into two components. One component is obtained
by the linear theory and the other is due to slamming loads. Their theoretical results using
linear strip theory agreed satisfactorily with the experimental results.
Ogawa et al. (2002) conducted model experiments of a large container ship with various
wave heights to develop a practical estimation method of impact pressure on the bow flare.
They found that impact pressures on the bow flare is mostly dependent on ship motions and
______________________________________________________________
1 Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, Bangladesh University of
Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000
2 Division of Ocean Systems Engineering, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and
Systems Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon
305-701, Republic of Korea
wave height. They proposed probability density function of impact pressure on the bow flare
which is the combination of Chungs method (1970) and probability density function of
relative wave height.
Takao et al. (2001) presented a numerical method to clarify the dominant factor for the water
impact response on the bow flare of a container ship. They concluded that the maximum
pressure which acts on the container ship become about 16-23% of the theoretical value.
Dallinga (2006) performed experiments of a container ship to obtain an expression of the
effects of wave condition, ship heading and speed on bow flare slamming. They analyzed the
overall ships response i.e. whipping due to bow flare slamming. They concluded that
depending on the prudence of slam induced whipping increased the acceleration level by 25-
50%. They also mentioned that these increased acceleration can be controlled effectively by
voluntary speed reduction.
Sun and Faltinsen (2009) used boundary element method (BEM) for 2D slamming of bow
flare section of a ship with roll angle. They pointed out that large roll angle causes very high
localized pressure in the flare area. Hermundstad and Moan (2005, 2007) applied non-linear
strip theory for predicting slamming loads on bow flare section of ship hulls and validate the
procedure with the experimental results carried by them for a 120 meter car carrier and 290
meter cruise ship in bow and bow quartering regular and irregular waves of different heights.
Wilson et al. (2008) performed RaNS simulation (University of Tennessee code Tenasi) on
the S175 containership at Fn=0.2 in incident waves. Pitch and heave motions showed good
agreement with experimental data. Vertical accelerations at the bow showed a strong non-
linear response for a large amplitude wave case associated with bow slamming. Veen and
Gourlay (2011) developed a 2D smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method for
calculating slamming loads on realistic hull section shapes. They concluded that SPH can
model the jets and splashing which are important features of slam events. Most recently
Kapsenberg et al. (2010) used modified version of classical momentum theory (monty) to
capture the effects of wave steepness, wave direction, and commercial CFD application
ANSYS CFX to predict slamming loads on the bow section of a 173 meter ferry. They
concluded that when the incoming wave was well matched to the wave profile data, CFD
results are in good agreement with the experiment.

In present study, computational fluid dynamics technique WISDAM is employed to

analyze the hydrodynamic loads on bow flare section of container ships. The analysis is
based on visualization technique.

NUMERICAL METHOD

Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RaNS) based numerical simulation technique

called WISDAM which has the capability of handling 6 (six) degrees of freedom
(DOF) ship motions is used. Finite volume method with structured and overlapping grid
system in employed. The flow variables are described in staggered manner i.e. velocity
components are defined at the face center while pressure is at the cell center.
Governing equations

Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equation and the continuity equations are solved on the
overlapping grid system using finite volume method. In non-inertial co-ordinate system, the
RaNS and continuity equations are expressed in the integral form for a control volume as;

+ = (1)

= 0 (2)

where u is the fluid velocity vector, T is the fluid stress tensor and K is the body
force vector accounting for the inertial effect on fluid. All of the fluid variables are
made dimensionless with respect to constant reference velocity ship length and the
density of fluid. The dimensionless parameters, Reynolds number (Re) and Froude number
(Fn) are defined as,

= , = (3)

Where v and g are the dynamic viscosity of fluid and the gravitational acceleration
respectively.

The fluid stress tensor T is expressed as

1
= + [ + () ] + (4)

Where I is the identity tensor, is the gradient operator, (. ) denotes the transport operator,
is the Reynolds stress and is the non-dimensionalized pressure excluding the
hydrostatic component defined as

= + 2 (5)

here z is the vertical up and p is the static pressure of the fluid.

The body force vector K is given as follows,

= 2 ( )

(6)

Where is the angular velocity vector about body fixed co-ordinate system OXYZ, r is
the position vector defined in OXYZ, V is the translating velocity of the origin of the
body-fixed system. The term in the right-hand side of Equation (6) are the Coriolis
force, the centrifugal force, the angular acceleration force and the translating
acceleration force respectively.
Free surface treatment

Treatment of free-surface is based on density function method. In WISDAM, solving the

following transport equation of density function satisfies thekinematic condition of free
surface.

= (7)

Where u is the velocity vector of fluid, density function defined in the entire
computational region as,

1, in fluid region

m 0 in other region (8)

Equation (7) is discretized by finite volume method and solved in a time marching
way. The location of free surface is as the iso-surface of = 0.5 . Extrapolation of
pressure and velocity components above the free surface satisfies the free surface
dynamic condition. To evaluate turbulent viscosity in the flow field, blended Baldwin-
Lomax zero equation model and Dynamic Sub-Grid Scale (DSGS) model is used. The
local turbulent velocity is determined by weighted average of these two models.

Wave generation
In WISDAM, incident waves are generated based on linear wave theory by which wave
velocity potential is derived as,

cosh d z
Ac sin x cos y sin t (9)
sinh d

Further, if we assume that water depth tends to infinity, then the flow velocity u and arbitrary
quantity in the space-fixed co-ordinate system can be described as,

u w cos Ae cos x cos y sin t

z

u vw sin Aez cos x cos y sin t
w ez sin x cos y sin t
w A (10)
2 2
w Acez sin x cos y sin t A
e 2z
2
(11)

Here, u w , vw , ww u
x y z
= .

Incident waves are generated on outer solution domain. When waves enter into inner solution
domain, boundary conditions with the interaction of uw , vw , ww and uniform velocity
U 0 ,0,0 transform the formula into the following.
 u U 0 cos Ae cos x cos y sin t
z

u v sin Aez cos x cos y sin t
w Aez sin x cos y sin t
(12)

Moreover, the relationship between space-fixed co-ordinate, o- xyz and translation co-ordinate
O- X 0Y0 Z 0 is expressed as

U 0Tacc
x X 0 U 0t
2
y Y0
z
Z0
(13)

Computational domain and grids

For the implementation of the interaction of incident waves and the resultant ship
motions, overlapping grid systems are employed in WISDAM. By employing
overlapping grid systems, the total simulation domains (shown in Figure 1 and 2) are
divided into two as inner solution domain and outer solution domain. The inner solution
domain covers the vicinity of the hull surface, where high resolution mesh (C-H type for half
hull; O-H type for full hull) is generated to capture the free surface. The outer solution
domain is located at a several ship length away from the hull surface. In each solution
domain, structured computational mesh is generated independently using
PointwiseV16.04R3. To avoid green water loading on deck, the hull surface is extended in
upward direction to cover the deck.

The overall simulation domain is divided into two, termed as inner solution domain and outer
solution domain. Single block mesh is generated in each solution domain. There is clustering
of grid points along both hull surface and undisturbed free surface so that grid spacing
near these boundaries is minimum for resolving free surface. The domain and grid sizes
can be found in Orihara & Miyata (2003).

Inner solution domain

Figure 1 shows the grids in the inner solution domain. It covers the vicinity of the hull.
Curvilinear body -fitted O-H type grid is generated. Simulation in this domain is on the
moving co-ordinates fixed at the center of gravity of the ship.
Figure 1. Inner solution domain.

Outer solution domain

Outer solution domain is located several ships length away from the hull surface. A
simple rectangular mesh is generated as the outer domain. Here, simulation is also in moving
co-ordinates with planer motion restriction. Incident wave is generated in this domain based
on the linear wave theory. The details of flow solution procedure, solution model, algorithm
and method, and boundary conditions can be found in Akimoto & Miyata (2002) and Orihara
& Miyata (2003).

SHIP GEOMETRY

Korean Ocean research and Development Institute (KORDI) previously Korean Ship
Research Institute (KRISO) developed model KCS and National Maritime Research
Institute (NMRI) previously Ship Research Institute, Japan developed model SR108 is
analyzed in present studies. Figure 2 represents SR108 and KCS ship model. Both of the
models are container ship models. KCS has a bulbous bow while SR108 has a small bulb.
Bow flare section of SR108 is more concave in nature than KCS. Stern section of SR108 and
KCS is round and transom respectively. The main principal particulars of the ship models are
described in Table 1.

Table 1: Principal particulars of ship models

Particulars SR108 KCS

Length between perpendiculars [m] 175.00 230.00
Length of waterline [m] 178.20 232.50
Breadth, moulded [m] 25.40 32.20
Depth [m] 15.40 19.00
Draught [m] 9.50 10.80
Displacement volume [m3] 24742 52030
Block co-efficient 0.5716 0.6505
Design Froudes Number 0.275 0.26
Figure 2. Body plan of Container ship models SR108 (upper) and KCS (lower)
 SIMULATIONS AND ANALYSIS MEHOD

Simulations are conducted for head and oblique wave conditions with various
combinations of wave length/ship length ratio and wave amplitude/ship length ratio in
order to compare with available experimental results. Analysis of hydrodynamic load on
the flare section is based on visualization technique.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figures 3 to 5 show the comparison of time history of total drag co -efficient, heave and
pitch motion for KCS at Fn =0.33, /L=1.33 and /L= 0.0112, in head wave
respectively.

The total drag co-efficient is defined as,

= 1
2
2

Where, is the total drag, is ships speed, is the wetted surface area and is the density
of water.

Figures 6 to 7 show the comparison of heave and pitch motions amplitude for SR108 in
120 degree oblique wave at = 0.25. The amplitude of heave and pitch motions are made
non-dimensionalized with respect to wave amplitude, and mean wave slope,
respectively.

Figure 3. Comparison of time history of total drag coefficient for KCS at = 0.33 in
head waves.
Figure 4. Comparison of time history of heave motion for KCS at = 0.33 in
head waves.

Figure 5. Comparison of time history of pitch motion for KCS at = 0.33 in head
wave.
Figure 6. Comparison of amplitude of heave motion for SR108 at = 0.25 in oblique
waves

Figure 7. Comparison of amplitude of pitch motion for SR108 at = 0.25 in oblique

waves.
Figure 8. Time history of pitch motion for KCS at = 0.275 in 120 degree
oblique wave.

Figure 9. Time history of pitch motion for SR108 at = 0.275 in 120 degree
oblique wave.
Figure 10. Time history of heave motion for KCS at = 0.275 in 120 degree
oblique wave.

Figure 11. Time history of heave motion for SR108 at = 0.275 in 120 degree oblique
wave.
Figures 8 to 9 show the time history of pitch motions at = 0.275, /L=3.82 and /L=
0.01 in 120 degree oblique wave for KCS and SR108 respectively whereas time history for
heave motions for the same conditions in case of both ship models are shown in Figures 10
to 11.

In head wave for KCS, present simulation results shown in Figures 3 to 5 agree reasonably
well with experiment for heave and pitch motions but total drag is under predicted.
Visualization of the flow field for present simulation case indicates that there is green
water loading on deck that is not included in the simulation. This may be the possible
reason for under prediction of total drag. In oblique wave for SR108, simulation results of
response amplitude operator (RAO) of ship motions are in well agreement with
experiments shown in Figures 6 and 7. In Figures 8 to 11, it is seen that SR108 experiences
higher heave and pitch motions than KCS in 120 degree oblique wave. Based on the linear
wave theory incident waves are generated in present numerical simulation. Figure 12
shows SR108 in oblique wave at a time instance to better understand of wave
generation for readers.

Figure 12. SR108 in 120 degree oblique wave at one time instance.

In present analysis, we selected a particular region arbitrarily on bow section and

visualize pressure distribution at that selected section. Figure 13 shows the selected
section for KCS and SR108. Figure 14 shows the pressure contour on the starboard side
of selected bow flare section for KCS and SR108 at the instance when the mid-ship
section of both ship models is in the wave trough. It is seen from Figure 14 that bow
flare section of KCS experiences higher pressure than SR108. The possible reason may be
due to presence of bulbous bow from where flow separation occurs. Also at this instance
(mid-ship section of both ship models is in the wave trough), there is green water loading
on deck in case of SR108.
 KCS

Selected Region

SR108

Figure 13. Selected bow flare region

Figure 14. Pressure contour on particular section at a time instance

 CONCLUSION

In present study, we analyzed container ship models KCS and SR108 in head wave and
oblique wave conditions. Simulation results agree favorably well for ship motions. We also
analyzed load on particular section in the bow flare region by visualization technique.
Although SR108 has more concave shape than KCS, KCS experiences higher pressure on
arbitrarily selected particular section. The possible reason may be due to the presence of
bulbous bow. Since in real operating conditions, the ship master has to maneuver the ship in
oblique waves and facilities for conducting towing tank experiments in oblique wave
conditions are limited, therefore WISDAM can be a suitable design tool for the assessment of
ship performance in waves and the development of hull forms with superior performance in
waves.

NOMENCLATURE

= fluid velocity vector,

= stress tensor
= body force vector accounting for the inertial effect on fluid.
= Reynolds number
= Froude number
= ship length
= dynamic viscosity of fluid
= gravitational acceleration
= fluid stress tensor
= identity tensor,
= gradient operator,
= non-dimensionalized pressure excluding the hydrostatic component
= vertical up direction
= static pressure of the fluid
= angular velocity vector about body fixed co-ordinate system OXYZ
= position vector defined in OXYZ
= translating velocity of the origin of the body-fixed system
= density function
= velocity vector of fluid
= velocity potential
= total drag
= ships speed
= wetted surface area
= density of water
= static pressure of incident waves
= wave amplitude
= wave length
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